USA Hockey Magazine's Top Stories of 2012

As we close the book on 2012 here at USA Hockey Magazine and set our eyes on another exciting year of providing you with news and stories from across the USA Hockey landscape lets take one last look back at some of the top stories of 2012.

There was about two minutes to play in the playoff game and I was anxiously pacing behind the bench, barking out whatever instructions seemed important at that very moment. You watch the game and you watch the clock in those final seconds, sometimes precisely at the very same time

We were up by a goal, poised to advance to the next round of the playoffs, when I felt a tug on my jacket.

"Ah coach," one of my players said on the bench.

"Yea," I answered, concentrating more on the game and the clock than on him at that instant.

ASHA Player Graduates From Special Hockey to a Role With Towson University Club Team

By: Danielle Bernstein

Andrew Freidman and Drew Zucker pulled up to the freshmen dorms at Towson University in Baltimore on an early September morning to pick up their new teammate, Adam Rothstein, for the first hockey practice of the season. Half-asleep and not quite ready for a season of 6 a.m. wake-up calls, the two Towson juniors weren't fully prepared for what Rothstein was about to bring, not only to their daily carpool, but to a team in need of a boost in morale... (READ MORE)

North Carolina Adult Player Rebounds in a Big Way to Return to the Ice

By: Michael Huie

For most hockey players, stepping on the ice before a game is routine. For Dave Marley it's a miracle.

Marley, a 46-year-old rec-league player from Winston-Salem, N.C., collapsed on the ice during his son Logan's goalie clinic in May. He was taken to the hospital where a doctor told his wife, Elizabeth, that if Marley survived he would never "be the same person."... (READ MORE)

As a proponent of the American Development Model, I was disappointed last summer when my area league failed to adopt the cross- or half-ice format for Mites.

Like any paradigm shift, there will be resistance on the part of the establishment. In this case, coaches, rinks, leagues and state associations have to assess where, when and how to implement these changes.

USA Hockey has done virtually all they could do to educate the entire community on the indisputable benefits of the ADM. Without support on the grass-roots level, this change will take longer than necessary, and our future players will suffer for it... (READ MORE)

The fall of 2010 was an eye-opening time for Derek Stepan. The New York Rangers forward joined an elite group of American skaters that made the transition directly from college hockey to the NHL without a stopover in the minor leagues.

In making the jump from college classes to full-time work at Madison Square Garden, Stepan also received a new tool of the trade, exchanging the full facemask he'd worn all of his life, including at the NCAA level, for a half shield that is commonly worn by many in pro hockey.

Other adult levels of the sport allow shields (sometimes called "visors," "half shields," and "three-quarter shields") to be worn by forwards and defensemen. But for the past 30 years or so, full facemasks of varying design have been required equipment in the college ranks... (READ MORE)

Rick Fasching promised his son that he wouldn't cry. At least not until he was boarding the plane back home to Minnesota.

But the thought of not seeing his eldest child every day, not having those regular family outings at the ice arena, his younger children not having their big brother around, was enough to send the tears streaming down Rick's face before he even got out the door of the house his oldest son would now call home... (READ MORE)

The makeshift ice rinks carved into the snowy expanses of Dollar Lake are as far away in distance as they are in decorum from a Motor City boardroom.

And yet, Bill Ford is equally comfortable in both settings.

Like the blue and white warming tents staked into the Eagle River (Wis.) ice, the 54-year-old executive chairman of Ford Motor Company is a fixture at the annual Labatt Blue USA Hockey Pond Hockey Championships. And he wouldn't have it any other way... (READ MORE)

Years After Their Dads Were Olympic Teammates, Tommy Olczyk and Nate Jensen are Skating at Penn State

By: Joe Sager

The hockey world is a very big one. It's also pretty small. Just ask Nate Jensen and Tommy Olczyk.

These two players wound up as part of the inaugural NCAA Division I ice hockey team at Penn State University this year. What really makes their situation unique is that they are roommates - much like their fathers, Ed and Dave H., were for Team USA at the 1986 IIHF World Championship in Moscow... (READ MORE)